There is just no logical justification for such actions no matter which commentary you would read.

To me, this is basically the behaviour that the "Herald" decided to take a suit against the arbitary decision of the Home Ministry in their decision on "Allah". It is a suit to ask the civil servants to review their decision and to invite the civil servants to be civil in their decision. It is similar to this arbitary, high handed 'my word is law" type of behaviour.

Soon, the police will decide that the 'democracy tree' is also a taboo, 'valucap' is also a taboo ... etc.

He started it in 2005 and refused to do otherwise for another 2 years.

A half hearted attempt to apologize IF the non Malays were insulted by the sabre rattling. It was not an apology yet the people that the words are spoken against were able to want to forgive.

Hishammuddin moment was one of the visual of the arrogance of UMNO on its 'apartheid' styled Malay Superiority movement for the 2008 General Election.

After 1 year of soul searching and a new PR campaign that did not get him the sufficient vote for the UMNO post, he is again using the UMNO youth assembly to speak virtoil rethorics of race and to unsheath the keris again. And nobody else should critize him for he is just following an UMNO youth "tradition"; consciously left out that this tradition started only in 2005 after a succesful triumph in 2004 general election. In the process, making the UMNO members happy that he is as Malay as ...uhmmm... Najib and not bow down to the non Malays who are the root of all evil as per his speech.

He can kiss the toilet bowl if he wants, but to do the same in the context of a racist message does not bode well for a civil engagement. He claimed that he is the same mold as his grandfather and his father in doing the right thing for the rakyat. He is a disgrace to Dato Onn Jaafar and Tun Hussein Onn by trying to ride on their work. ( Come to think about it, Najib is plagiarizing Tun Dr Mahathir ... what a similar approach. Wonder who is their PR man)

I seriously suspect his sincerity and do not trust his lies anymore.

Talk is cheap, and Hishammudin's words is not consistent with his behaviour.

KUALA KUBU BARU: The body of a woman, believed to be a rape victim, wasfound hanged from a durian tree in Sungei Choh near here. She was clad only inher underwear.

The body was found by passers-by at 7.50am. The woman had a rope tied roundher neck and the other end tied to a branch of the tree behind a petrol station.Her legs were tied and her feet were touching the ground.

She was clad only in a white bra and a maroon panties. Hulu Selangor deputyOCPD Supt Bakhtiar Rashid said police believe the victim could have beenmurdered elsewhere before the body was hanged from the branch.

He said police believe there was a struggle between the victim and herassailant as there were strangulation marks on her neck and bruises on herbody,

Supt Bakhtiar also said police believe the victim was raped before she waskilled hours before the body was found.

“No identification document was found on her. We are unsure about thevictim’s race but initial checks indicate that she might be a foreigner,” headded.

Yes, Suara Keadilan and Harakah just got banned. UMNO GE is tomorrow and everybody seemed excited. Yet, this is the story that gripped my heart that a girl was killed after being raped. But her story will remain in the background because of these political situations and perhaps because she is a foreigner. If she is a class 1 foreigner ( Arabs, Gwailos etc.), the embassy and media will descent and the police will make various different pledges. Seemed that this victim may fall between the cracks for being from a less than prestigious country.

My home church is working to support the vietnamese, bangladeshi migrants who came down to the small town to work on the furniture factories. Quite a few of them got summarily terminated and right now, the migrants feel that they have been wronged but without avenue for their grievences to be heard.

It is time that Malaysia subscribe to be a signatory to a migrant charter. We are either alllowing them to get the citizenship to easily ( read Sabah) or subject them to rather unfair practices.

KLANG: Selangor police have refuted claims that a vice ring offering theservices of foreign prostitutes was operating in Pulau Ketam near here.

State deputy police chief Senior Asst Comm I Datuk Jamshah Mustapa saidthis in response to a report in a Chinese vernacular paper last week thatChinese women were prostituting themselves in eight houses that had been turnedinto brothels in Pulau Ketam.

The report said the pimps running the operations charged between RM60 and RM80 for each visit with the women.

Clients could also keep the women for a month for between RM3,000 andRM5,000.

The problem was highlighted to the media as well as to the MCAby housewives in Pulau Ketam who feared that their sons and husbands would beaffected by these women, said the report.

SAC Jamshah said checks by the police indicated that tourists, mostly from China, with valid travel documents were visiting the island during the weekends.

He said some of the female tourists might have forgedfriendships with locals and this could have been frowned upon by certain quarters.

SAC Jamshah said the female tourists came there for holidaysand were not brought there by a vice ring.

In anti-vice operations in Pulau Ketam this year, he said police detained one local man and four Chinese women.

What do you think?

Here we have a SAC who seemed to rush aside the local's observation and came out with stories to reason out the situation. And at one brush, denied the involvement of syndicates.

She should think...

1. Why are there so many chinese tourist visiting Pulau Ketam, which are scarcely paraded as the top tourist destination in Malaysia?

2. And if it is so, why there seemed to be more women than men tourists?

3. And how long does it take to 'befriend' the locals? 2 hour trip or 2 weeks?

4. If the vice operations only capture 5 people , is it because there is really nothing going on or because people got tip off?

I think a 10 year old also can be more inquisitive than this SAC. What a crab.

So,I am earning 4.5% and not 6% ( 2007 is 5.0%) because RM4.2 billion is missing. Coincidentally, RM5 billion is given in cash to Valuecap. It means that the EPF shareholders are getting less dividens because the money was given to somebody else. -> to selected high healed people.

“In the last few years, the orang asli community has undergone an erosionof identity and it is time their rights be returned to them with the resolutionof their land problems.

“I want to stress the need to acknowledge and preserve orang asli landwhich had been seized from them in the last few years,” said the Sultan.

Sultan Sharafuddin also urged the state government to expedite theidentification and gazetting of orang asli land.

“They should be given the land which is rightfullytheirs,” he added.

What a breath of fresh air. ( Read here) I hope the other sultans and Raja ( the white hair rajah of Sarawak) would take a leaf from HRH. Can we, the lesser beings and certainly the even lesser beings of Orang Asal's ( sorry, but the fact that they are not given their rightful land, continously loosing lands via court and logging companies etc. ) ... would dare to hope that there will be a real progress towards granting real rights to those that deserves it.

Lately, I have 3 friends who converted to Islam as they are seeking to be married. At some point of time, they will keep their distance from friends and maybe family .. and come out with their news. It is part of the modus operandi to protect the would be to be succesfully converted. Once you sign your name, it is a one was street in Malaysia. I do respect them as they have obediently carried out the expectation of a law that is designed to enable conversion. Sometimes, we should ask the question on why converting for the other partner? Even if it is a law, are there other ways?

Hoo Ying Soon, a 28-year-old carpenter, was shocked when he received a notice two days ago from the Islamic Shariah court granting temporary custody of their 15-month-old daughter to his wife, said his lawyer Tang Jay Son.

He was told that his wife, Chew Yin Yin, 23, embraced Islam on 28 Jan while his daughter was converted on 3 Feb, Tang said.

The couple, both Buddhists, wedded Feb 2007 in southern Negeri Sembilan state but their marriage broke down in Sept, he said.

"Hoo will challenge the conversion of his daughter in the High Court because it was done unilaterally by the mother without the consent of the father. They are not divorced yet," Tang told The Associated Press.

Religious issues are extremely sensitive in Malaysia, where about 60% of the 27 million people are Muslims. Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities have accepted Islam's dominance but in recent years voiced fears that courts are unfairly asserting the supremacy of Islam, which is Malaysia's official religion.

Malaysia has a dual court system. Muslims are governed by the Islamic Shariah courts and non-Muslims, civil courts. But interreligious disputes almost always end up in Shariah courts, and end in favor of Muslims.

Tang said Hoo's wife, who has adopted the name Siti Zubaidah Chew Abdullah, has filed for divorce in the Islamic court with a hearing due later Thursday.Hoo will seek an injunction in the Shariah court to prevent his wife from taking custody of their child, he said.

He has filed a suit in the High Court to question his daughter's conversion and to seek guardianship over their child, and wants the Islamic court to wait for the civil court's decision, he said. The high court has set 10 March for hearing."He has no problems with his wife converting to Islam but he feels it is unfair to convert their daughter," Tang said.

Hoo also is concerned that their child, Hoo Joey, has been renamed Nurul Syuhada Chew Abdullah, which doesn't carry his surname, he added.In a high profile case in 2007, an ethnic Hindu woman failed to persuade the civil court to ban her husband, who had embraced Islam, from converting their sons.

This is essentially, a loophole created for disaster.

1. If you want to get the custody of child, convert. The Syariah court would surely award the converted party the custody.

2. If you want to divorce and take on new wife ( most of the time) , convert.

3. If you want to divorce and not pay alimony, convert.

I don't think the lawmakers are really pushing to close the gap soon even though AAB said that he established a working committee on it. The law requiring conversion in marriage and the disparity between civil and syariah is creating an environment conducive for people to convert.

One of the commitments is to now expedite the process of dealing with thestalemate of Orang Asli land in Selangor. One of the great things the PakatanRakyat government in Perak did was to form an Orang Asli Taskforce,headed and led by Orang Asli themselves. They would then deal withthese problems and report it to the Exco. This was applauded by many.

Till Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli is headed and led by the Orang Asli, they will continue to be marginalized and subjected to the demands of the officials. Why build Mosques in kampung when they need plain water? And more importantly, their rights to their land.

I am confused. The flip flop by the Malaysian governement on the issue of the sanctity of the word "Allah" is a huge joke. I wonder why some people are paid good money to make other people's life a nuisance..

During the primary and secondary school, I used to be asked to lead the school assembly which involves singing the national and state song. Imagine me trying to do that today and I could be slapped with a suit and a time in jail. Imagine 10 years old in jail for using the word and the real criminals are left in the street to continue their carnage.

So, dear friends in these 5 states who can be jailed for singing their state songs ... do your maths. This is a huge joke for the world to laugh at us.